Girls Empowerment Network held their seventh annual We Are Girls conference on Saturday, Nov. 14 at Stephen F. Austin High School. The conference is an event that works to motivate and educate young girls, reaching out to the attendees using a wide variety of presentations and booths. Some girls came from as far as San Antonio and Dallas to visit the conference.

Girls Who Code had their own presentation, speaking about computer science to the girls who decided to participate in their session.

The presentation started out with club members asking the attendees what they think computer science is, and what kind of people they see computer scientists as. Many of the girls said they view those who work in computer science as middle-aged men typing away at a computer.

“You can see that the stereotypes of computer science have affected them since when they were asked about it; they all said that it was a male-dominated profession,” Club Treasurer Saumya Prakash ‘17 said. “It’s great to start at a young age and tell them that computer science is really for everybody.”

The participants engaged in various discussions throughout the session, covering different topics such as why it’s so important for girls to be involved in computer science.

Towards the end of the conference, the attendees broke off into groups and played a game where each girl was assigned a role of either a worker, instructor, or questioner. First, the groups decided on a word they wanted to make using wooden blocks. The purpose of the game is to place the blocks on the floor with the letter facing up in the correct order. Following the directions issued by the instructor, the worker moves the blocks, but they must both close their eyes. The questioner, who was the only one that could look at the blocks, answered yes or no questions asked by the instructor.

This  activity taught the girls how working as a group and being specific when giving instructions is essential to computer science. While the instructor might tell the worker to turn the block, the worker may not know which direction to turn it in, or if the instructor meant to rotate it.

“I thought it was incredible seeing these girls doing coding related things for the first time,” Varshinee Sreekanth ‘18 said. “They haven’t really been exposed to it and they see how difficult it is and all the steps to it. It’s great to help them and guide them into it.”

The participants left the session with new knowledge about computer science and what GIrls Who Code strives to accomplish.

“I really hope for every single one of those girls that if they want to code and they decide computer science is something they want to do, that they can, that it’s not just a guy’s field and that girls can’t do it and they’re not smart enough,” President Garima Singh ‘16 said. “All those really ridiculous stereotypes that girls have about computer science, I hope they realized that they aren’t true.”